Stories and Wisdom from a Life Fully Lived

Author: Charles Tutt

  • Preserving Consciousness

    /https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRvf00NooN8

    The Most Exciting Video I’ve Ever Seen!

    It’s more than an hour, but very interesting and thought provoking.

  • Things to Feel Bad About

    I like this article I received today from Seth Godin. It’s short. It says a lot. Consider acting on it.

    Things to feel bad about 

    You might have a list of them. In fact, many of us do, and consult it quite often. The list is defective for a number of reasons:

    1. It’s not accurate. There are things that aren’t right in our world that don’t appear on the list. Our personal list tends to be organized around things that are vivid, personal and apparently urgent, as opposed to useful or important.
    2. It ignores systemic problems in favor of individual annoyances.
    3. It makes a profit for the media, but doesn’t help us make things better.
    4. It’s not helpful. Memorizing the list isn’t helping us get any closer to doing anything about it.
    5. It’s actually a trap, designed to keep us from doing the important work we’re afraid to do. It’s Resistance, in the form of buzzkill.
    6. It’s distracting. All the moments we waste focusing on the feel-bad list simply serve to make us feel bad. That’s the list’s job.

    Lists like this aren’t a helpful way to avoid bad outcomes. But they do allow us to experience the bad outcomes in advance, even the ones that don’t happen. If feeling bad is keeping us from doing things that produce better outcomes, more connection or simply joy, it’s a waste.

    The best use of the list might be to write it down, make it complete, carefully put it in a drawer for later. And then forget about it.

  • Success

    The most important factors for #success are no longer how many hours you work, how much effort you exert, or where you are located. What matters now is what you know, how well you document and organize that knowledge, and your ability to share it with others.

    Personal Knowledge Management has become an essential survival skill for everyone navigating the modern world.

  • Learning

    Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.

    Henry Ford

    If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.

    Zig Ziglar

    If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.

    Stephen Covey

    My works are like water. The works of the great masters are like wine. But everyone drinks water.

    Mark Twain

    To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination

    Albert Einstein

    You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

    Mark Twain

    Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

    Albert Einstein

    Happiness does not lead to gratitude. Gratitude leads to happiness.

    David Steindl-Rast

    Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.

    Oprah Winfrey

    One Big Thing

    You can never go wrong with an attitude of gratitude.

    Each one of us is born creative. And then one day, we went to school.

    Our formal education began with formally muzzling our creativity. By the time we completed our education, the process of ‘de-creativization’ was complete. The whole process is so effective that whenever we come across creative people, we consider them as gifted individuals. The reality is that all of us were as gifted as the creative ones. The only difference is, somehow, they managed to survive the ‘de-creativizing’ effect of formal education.

    Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.

    Pablo Picasso

    For those who expect everything, there are many curses. For those who appreciate everything, there are many blessings.

    James Clear

  • Operations

    Repetitive Routines, Habits, Work Flows

    Philosophy is “why”. Yes, I’m always asking that. Strategy is “how”; another one of my favorite thought modes. Tactics are “what”… but Operations, (as in a manufacturing workflow) are more than “who” or “where” or “when”. Tactics are “who”, “what”, “when” and then some. Tactics are an applied deep understanding of philosophy and strategy applied to a situation. Operations Management, Life Management, Business Management all require a coherent “System” of well thought out repeatable processes, habits, rituals, flows, steps, represented by the Management Cycle… Planning, Implementing, Reviewing, analyzing and constantly improving with each cycle.

  • Living Life Backwards

    Author Shakti Gawain on living authentically:

    “Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier. 

    The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do in order to have what you want.”

    Source: Creative Visualization​

  • The Right Word

    The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter–’tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.

    Mark Twain

    Mark Twain is one of my all-time favorite writers.

  • Let Go

    to Improve your Relationships and Your Own Peace of Mind

    The most serious problem for any situation; marriage, relationships, businesses, or organizations, are the ones that cannot be discussed openly and honestly, with respect, tolerance, and intelligence.

    Charles Tutt

    All relationships involve issues of control.

    The other person’s approval or disapproval is important within a relationship.

    Each party to the relationship often maneuvers to be in control. This control is fluid in a healthy relationship.

    Let go:

    • Does not mean stop caring. It means I won’t do it for someone else, becuse I want them to learn from the experience.
    • Recognizes that I cannot control another person.
    • Is to recognize the power in another to control his or her life situation and live with the consequences of his or her behavior.
    • Means I will not try to change or blame another.
    • Means I will focus on what I can control, my own behavior.
    • Means I will be supportive.
    • Is not being protective but allowing another to face the reality of life.
    • Does not deny the behavior of another, but accepts it.
    • Means dealing with the present to create a useful future and not clinging to the past.
    • Means fearing less and loving more.
    • Means I will search for my own shortcoming and correct them.
    • Means I have given myself and you permission to make mistakes and be wrong.
    • Means I will not try to adjust everything to fit my desires, but take each moment as it comes.
    • Means growth and living for the future.
    • Is not scolding, arguing, or nagging.
    • Means I will be there for support, advice, and love, but the decisions you make will be your own.
    • Is the realization that words like should, must, ought to, need and demandingness are symptoms of my own feeling.
    • Is the realization that life is a process and that at any moment everything could change.
    • Is knowing the difference between the things I cannot change and those that I can.
    • Is the recognition that people are whole and complete and capable of doing whatever they want to do to get what they want.
    • Is the true expression of unconditional positive regard.

    Inspired by Lloyd Loften. Edited (somewhat) by Charles Tutt

  • The Map is Not The Territory

    The map is not the territory.

    Alfred Korzybski

    The journey is not the adventure.

    The goal/plan is not the accomplishment.

    The menu is not the meal.

    These and many other things are merely ingredients, beliefs, thoughts, feelings, dreams, and fantasies that make up our life’s experiences.

    Conceptions/ mis-conceptions

    Understanding/ mis-understanding

    Failures/ learnings

    Our models of situations are not the real thing—actual stuff of life — but we often confuse the map and the model with reality and then forget they’re not the same. But why does it matter?

    Something to Think About

    Our life stories are just a map (our interpretation of circumstances or situations) that we, and others with whom we communicate, use, to arrive at conclusions that may or may not be the real whole truth.

    We’ve all grown up with maps. Those maps have contributed to our own internal maps. Our parents, culture, school, religion, society at large raised us, believing in the maps they found most useful and passed them on to us. They’re in our DNA. We identify with them, i.e. Liberal, Conservative, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Atheist, LGBTQ, etc.. Often we’re unaware of them. And especially our self-identity with them.

    Sometimes (often) they cause conflict when our maps are not in agreement with the maps of other groups or individuals.

    When you think about it, it’s no different from how so many of us anticipate the future. Some look with fear and others with eagerness or a hundred other emotions. Some see loving humans occupying the planet and others see scary people out to hurt them. But in the end, the stories we anticipate are just map filters we use consistently/routinely to view the world. In the end, those maps may or may not be the reality we will actually experience. Remember that a map is not the territory, any more than shadows on a cave wall are reality.

  • Life Happens

    With or Without Angst and Stress

    A few useful thoughts to consider:

    • Taking a step back and gracefully walking away from situations that threaten your peace of mind, values, morals, or self-worth is almost always a healthy and necessary step forward.
    • Sometimes you have to accept the fact that life has changed again, that things will never go back to how they were and that this ending you’re thinking about is really a new beginning.
    • Trust the journey of your life, and you will gradually outgrow what you thought you couldn’t live without, and fall in love with what you didn’t even know you wanted.
    • Remember, peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no chaos, trouble, or hard realities to deal with. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still remain mentally, emotionally, and physically centered.
    • It takes repetition to form a new habit. So for the next twelve weeks, wake up every morning and look at the right side, or perhaps the bright side, of your life and you will rewire your brain.

    Despite the real-world challenges we all face, the biggest and most complex obstacle we will must overcome on a daily basis is our own mind…

    We can all think better. We can tap into our inner strength and ultimately live better, one day at a time.